It's all about the smiles and the tears
by Raawr.x
Summary: ... Because love means facing your biggest fears.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: ... Because love means facing your biggest fears.**

**A/N: I'm back with another Joe/OFC story, just to put it out there I am in no way opposed to Kent/Chandler fanfiction I really don't mind reading it, in fact most of it is terribly cute, I just choose not to write it is all, anyway back to the story, I thought it might be nice to in some way incorporate Joes background into a romance fic a little bit... I'm rambling again! Enjoy and don't forget to review! ^.^**

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They had been stood outside the incident room watching and waiting for about half an hour now, watching the DI stumble over his words talking to the pretty red head, if they didn't go in soon it was going to look suspicious to the constables and reception staff who had been watching them for a good ten minutes so Miles place his hand softly on the door and pushed it open just in time to hear the DI jokingly laying into the young woman about her legs.

"You can tell you've been living in America too long, Jesus look at that thigh gap I could fit my whole fist in it!"

His companion pulled a face and punched him in the arm, before looking all too obviously down at her legs, clad in black skinny jeans they were indeed thin and there was quite a noticable gap between her thighs "Shut up." She grumbled before punching his arm again but this time afterwards she squeezed it with both of her hands, "Never mind about my legs, someone has been working out... Trying to impress the ladies hot shot?" He rolled his eyes and she giggled before poking his stomach, "Ooo... That's nice too!" She grinned and prodded him again.

They had faltered on the stairs feeling as though they were massively intruding on a very private moment. She was about to prod him in the stomach again when he noticed them and caught her hand expertly, she pouted.

"Hey!" She exclaimed, "I was enjoying that!"

He ignored her and increased his hold on her hand so she couldn't wrench it free, "Morning!" He greeted them all brightly, he was met with a surprised/astonished returns of morning or a stumbled 'morning sir' in Kents case.

They all made their way to their individual desks but no one took their eyes of the red headed woman, though Mansells was more learing rather than watching, not that she had noticed, she was more intent on getting her hands free so that she could poke Joe in the stomach again.

"If I let you do it once more will you promise to stop?"

"No..." She mumbled shaking her head defiantly, he just increased the grip on her hands "Okay!" She squealed, he let go and she prodded his stomach again before turning away, folding her arms and pouting like a small child.

"Oh, uh, everyone this is Jess an old friend of mine,"

About bloody time he offered an introduction, Jess smiled cheerily at them all.

"Good morning!" She sing songed.

She was met with a series of 'Morning...' 's

Commander Anderson seemed to materialise in the doorway, "Jess, you were supposed to meet me an hour ago, how long have to been here?"

"Oops," she laughed nervously, and Joe backed away from her "About an hour and a half, sorry, I got distracted... From what I can feel through his shirt Joe has some nice abbs," she reached out behind her to prod him again but Joe successfully swatted her hand away.

"You do get very easily distracted when not on assignment don't you dear?"

"Yeah, sorry daddy, I'll be on time next time I arrange to meet you for breakfast," she grinned, "I guess it more kinda brunch now huh?" She asked as she collected her bag and shrugged her jacket on over her blue silk blouse, "Bye Joe,"

He smirked "Time to fly is it songbird?"

She smiled as she made her way up the three steps from the incident room to the door "See you later heart breaker!" She called and winked at him as she and Commander Anderson exited the room.

His team just sat and watched the exchange between old friends, Mansell and Riley were staring open mouthed, Kent was wide eyed and Miles was smirking to himself.

"Where did you meet her?"

"Uh..." Joe laughed nervously and ran a hand through his hair, "I've known her all her life... I'm not sure if you know by now but Commander Anderson was, technically still is, my god father and my dad was that for Jess and her sisters..."

"That brings us to another topic sir, are we ever going to meet any members of this elusive family of yours?" Riley asked carefully

"The only two people worth meeting are those you've already met, Jess and Commander Anderson... My mother isn't the type of person any of you would like, sometimes I don't even like her." Joe shrugged

"And what about your father?" Buchan asked having entered the room just as Jess and the commander were leaving

"... Um..." He faltered, a little too long for Miles' liking any way "That's not possible..." He was fidgeting uncomfortably and messing with his watch "He died when I was seven..."

The atmosphere in the room shifted, no longer was it banter welcoming and playful, but sad and awkward.

He shifted from friend to boss, "Right. What do we know?"

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A/N: I apologise if my grammar is not perfect, I'm on an iPad you see, not a computer at the moment... Reviews much appreciated! ^.^


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Back! Time for chapter two! **

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It was a good few weeks before they saw Jess again.

They had made good progress on the murder case, a witness was willing to testify in court that he saw the suspect in the pub that night though he strongly denies being there, forensic evidence was mounting up against him making a happily workable case, the only problem was they were denied access to everything about the victim.

"Sir, I can't get anything..." Riley told him, "I'm having the same problem as down in forensics, everything is locked up tight and senior password protected,"

"Surely there's a way to get into the files somehow?" Kent asked appearing at her side and looking up at Joe, with those wondering brown eyes.

"No, look we need a password of someone far more senior on the chain of command than a DI," she pointed to the screen "Restricted, authorised personnel only, I don't mean to be rude sir but if you had access to this file we wouldn't need to open it, you would already know what was contained within it..."

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Jess glanced at her phone, although she didn't need to really, he had his own ringtone but sure enough the picture flashing up was him with the old teenage nickname of 'Heart breaker' across the top of the screen.

"What's the word humming bird?"

"How far does your security clearance go?"

"Access all areas hon, why? What's up?"

"I need your help."

That said he'd hung up after telling her to meet him at whitechapel police station as soon as was possible. Better get going.

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Jess felt nervous when all of a sudden the stressed out and frustrated gazes of three DC's and a DS as well as that of her old friend turned to her.

She laughed nervously, "Because that isn't scary at all..." She mumbled stepping carefully down the stairs as though a deer caught in the headlights. "What is it you need me for?" Her eyes grey eyes met Joes blue ones.

"This," he admitted gesturing to the computer on the desk beside him, sounding defeated, "We can't access any of the files, I'm wondering if you can?"

"Of course I can, but whether or not I can show them to you is a completely different matter," she sighed "I love you Joe but not enough to put my job in jeopardy... Especially not that much mister!"

"Okay, fine, but see this?" He pointed now to the practically empty whiteboard perfectly in the centre of the five, "That is literally everything we know about our victim, if there is something else we need to know before we charge someone with his murder then we need to know it Jess, what if we have the wrong man?"

His eyes never moved from hers, though she squirmed under his gaze.

"Let me make a phone call..." She pulled her phone from her pocket "Can I use your office?"

"Of course..."

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She emerged ten minutes later, "You have half an hour to get in, get what you need and get out, you can't print though, print screen, copy and paste do what ever but you cannot print directly from this file."

They all nodded and Jess signed them in.

"Half an hour," she warned "Go."

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Twenty minutes later they knew everything there was to know about their victim. Absolutely everything, including he'd been in witness protection, so now they were looking at other possible suspects.

"Thank you for that Jess," Joe smiled as he handed her a cup of tea

"No problem," she took a sip "Feels kinda good to help out an old friend ya'know," she was staring up at the whiteboards, highly interested in all of the crime history president cases, she grinned "Hey, I remember this one!" She jumped up from her perch on the spare desk, "I remember doing a case study on it at university, annoyed landlady, drunken man disturbing her girls she shot him in the chest and shoved his body in the cellar, no one knew anything until her husband needed to change the barrel a few months later when she was away... It was a study on how women could turn violent very quickly when feeling threatened."

"You did history at university?" Miles asked giving Joe a pointed look

"Yeah, specialised in crime history," She carefully took another sip of her tea, as though she could feel Mansell watching her, she turned to him "Want something buddy boy?" She asked raising her eyebrows at him.

Mansell shook his head and turned his attention back to the computer in front of him.

"Good."

At the desk to Mansells right, Riley smiled to herself; it was clear she liked Jess, and the two were similar in many ways when it came to personality, "We could use you around here more often, no one else can shut him up like that!"

Jess grinned, clearly she had made a new friend in Riley, "I can come by quite often when I'm not on assignment, that is if you don't mind Joe?"

He shrugged "No," why would he. It was fairly obvious to all of them that the two were close "There is however one condition,"

She pouted, she knew what was coming then.

"You talk to your delightful daddy about certain arrangements..."

She breathed a laugh, "What, the fact that we are currently living together? Or the bit where you were the only person I told I was coming home?"

"The first... I think he'll throttle me for not telling him the second" Joe smiled

"Deal!" Jess declared happily shaking his hand.

She grinned like someone who had just won first prize, and they all looked at her like she was an idiot, even Joe.

"Anyway, it's been a long day..." Miles hinted looking up at the clock "Pub anyone?"

"Sounds like a plan!"

Mansell jumped up from his seat, Riley did the same just not so quickly and Kent hesitated.

"Invitation applies to you too," Miles insisted looking at Jess

"Oh, sure! Why not? It's been ages since I went to a proper pub!" Jess then looked pointedly at Joe, "Don't you dare say no..."

He held up his hands in mock surrender "Okay, okay..."

"Good because as you well know I'm little miss no transport as well as little miss no home of her own at the moment" she pulled a face, "I hate importation laws..." She was aware of the strange looks she received now "My car is not a British citizen..."

"Let's get going,"

Miles lead the way out of the station to the car park Mansell hot on his heels.

"Clearly someone needs a drink?" Jess practically asked

"We do wonder sometimes..." Kent spoke for the first time since Jess got to the police station.

"Oh! Hello, Kent right?" He nodded, "Sorry, I haven't had much chance to speak to you,"

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**A/N: Thoughts? ^.^**


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Enjoy! Other chapters for this may be led layer as I am working on my fic for the Whitechapel Big Bang on live journal.

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"... And there was the other one, I think her name was Amy, who tried to crawl into bed with you!"

Jess had been telling them all stories about when she and Joe were young all night, she'd had them laughing hard at quite a few points. She was being careful though not to tell them anything too personal about the DI.

"You cannot say anything about that..." He warned raising his eye brows at her

"What?"

"Crawling into be with me..."

"Yes but when I did it you didn't yell at me!"

"So really sir, that many girls and you broke all their hearts by acting like you didn't notice that they liked you like that?" Riley now spoke up with hopes of distracting Mansell from Jess's last statement.

"I wasn't acting, I genuinely didn't notice..." Joe shrugged "But yes that's how I got the nickname heart breaker, that reminds me, heard anything from Adam since you got back?"

"No," she shook her head, "Your turn, I've told you stories from when we were kids, come on with the funny stories guys"

The whole team had taken quite the shine to Jess, she was funny and lovely to them all, very sociable but most of all she brought out sides to their boss that none of them had really seen before, they'd had a brief glimpse of this other man when Morgan came into the picture but when she had died it appeared to shrink back into its little cave in the corner of his brain and protest like a child shouting 'I'm not moving, I don't want to hurt!' Maybe she could get him to come out and play again.

Mansell took the lead when it came to the funny stories, talking about his first wife and how she used to drag him out to clubs all the time and the two would get absolutely stinking drunk; one time she had even managed to convince him that she was pregnant and the last thing he remembered was sitting on the club toilet floor crying, they all got quite a good laugh out of that one, Miles and Riley were each talking about their children all stories ending with the general, unless you are prepared to lose your sanity dont have children and she had even managed to get Kent on the subject of how he met his flat mates.

"Just don't make it into a really long how I met your mother type thing..."

"Ooo, Neil Patrick Harris is hot!" Jess grinned, she got a raised eyebrows look from Kent and Mansell and a nod of agreement from Riley "What can I say? I have a thing for athletic blonde guys, Joe could tell you that, they don't necessarily have to be tall too but it helps..." She looked Joe up and down, the others could see him beginning to feel a little self conscious.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but were you two ever a couple?" Riley finally asked the question that had been on everybody's minds since they first met Jess.

"Uh, why else would he have not minded when I crawled into bed with him?" Jess answered after Joe hesitated far too long.

"Right, next rounds on me!" Mansell declared standing up

"No, I should really be getting back, if I leave Martin with the kids too long they start to drive him insane..." Riley told them all with a fond smile while she collected her jacket

"Sorry, Judy will kill me if I go home smelling like a pub,"

Everyone made their excuses to leave, leaving mansell at the pub on his own where he sat at the bar and mumbled 'suit yourself' they all wanted to be able to drive home.

"Just don't end up crying on the floor!" Jess called as she and Joe left, Mansell knew he'd regret telling that story...

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Once they reached his car, Joe backed Jess up against it, so she couldn't escape his questions and she had to look at him straight on.

"Give me one good reason we can't go back to how things were..."

"I don't need to, you already know the reason," she tried to look away, anywhere but his face "You're not ready for a relationship so soon after what happened with Morgan, you loved her and she was taken from you Joe" the pain in those deep blue eyes was still fresh, "The most I could be for you now is a rebound stress release, then when it eventually breaks down to what it is we'll fall out over it all..." She sighed and snaked her arms around his waist, pressing herself to him in an awkward one sided hug "and I don't want that..." She sighed into his chest "I love you Joe,"

"I love you too," he admitted hugging her tightly to his chest, and kissing her head

She pushed herself far enough away from his chest to be able to look into his eyes, "Are we getting in the car then? Before people other than your team begin to suspect that we're a couple?" She asked pulling the car keys out of his trouser pocket and unlocking the car.

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A/N: Let me know what you think! ^.^


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